Interview with Shaun Brown
BN: Have you and Derrick Ozaze, who are both based in London, ever met?
DB: Yeah, we have a lot of mutual friends, so I know him personally. We sparred about six years ago. He came down for a week to see his family and was at the gym all week, so we sparred all week.
It’s entertaining because I was telling someone just a few weeks before I found out we might be fighting, that we were messaging each other. So when that came up I was like, oh man, this is awkward, but listen, it is what it is.
BN: I remember talking to you after your win over Kieran Smith and you were a bit frustrated with the lack of activity in your career. You must be joyful to be fighting regularly again.
DB: Definitely. I like to be energetic. We’re always in the gym, working strenuous and stuff like that because there’s so many people there and someone might have a date, so I’ll be at camp with them and stuff like that. I’m always in the gym, I’m always ready to go, I’m always ready to fight. It’s not like I take a lot of time off after fights and I have to get back in shape.
I’m always in decent shape and like I’ve said a million times, I’m competitive, I love fighting. I enjoy it. So when I’m not energetic, I feel like I’m just wasting my time in the gym and I could be doing something else, spending time with my family or doing something else, but I’m sitting in the gym waiting for a date and I don’t get it. It can be really frustrating. I put a lot of time and life into this sport and I don’t have a lot of time for it. I want to do everything now, as much as I can, so when I retire from the sport, I’m joyful with how my career has turned out.
BN: You beat Danny Dignum and are expected to beat Ozaze as well. If you win on Saturday, you’ll definitely be hanging around Queensberry’s door looking for a bigger fight.
DB: Honestly, I understood my position. If I had defeated [Nathan] Heaney, I would have been there. I know I had to go back against [Danny] Dignum and that was a great performance and it showed that it was just a bad night against Heaney. I’m a contender in the middleweight division but it’s just one fight. I have to do it again before I start saying, great, can we move on? I understand the loss.
I understand that I have to go back to go forward again and that’s what I’m doing. This fight is a good fight. Ozaze is a good fighter. He’s a good fighter. I’m expected to win because I’m more celebrated than him. He’s just not that celebrated.
So it’s like, oh, who is this guy? But he’s a tough fighter. He’s a good fighter. He’s sturdy and he’s got character. I think it could turn out to be a dog fight, but regardless of what kind of fight it is, I have to make sure I get my hand raised at the end. I can’t take him lightly and have another slip-up. I have to get through this and then I can start asking myself other questions like how do I move forward.
BN: You said about knowing your position, which is a very straightforward and realistic assessment. Have you always been a realist?
DB: Yes, 100%. You have to be realistic in life. We all have expectations. We all want to be in places and we all want to be at the top, whatever we do. But you have to ask yourself, do you deserve it? What did you do to deserve it? In this game, you have to be a little bit of a cheater.
You have to feel like you’re the best to compete with the best. I don’t doubt that, but you also have to understand your journey and where you stand. Like I’ve said a million times, I didn’t come into boxing the conventional way. I came in behind schedule. I didn’t do much as an amateur. So I started in petite shows and then I got noticed by Frank. [Warren] because of our relationships and we jumped on the show at the last minute and I was impressed.
No one expected me to do anything. So why should I feel like I need to be pushed around, just because I feel like I should be pushed around? I need to show my worth. I know what I feel like I’m worth, but I need to show everyone else what I feel like I’m worth and what I feel like I can do. And I feel like the more realistic you are, the less nervous you’ll be. I know I’m a good fighter, but I also understand my position. I understand that I need to prove myself.
I have to get the opportunities, take advantage of them and win. Just because I think I’m a good fighter doesn’t mean I should be here, there and there. I have to earn the right to be put in those positions. That being said, I feel like there are a lot of fighters in good positions that have something else that helps them grow. They can sell a lot of tickets or they can have a social media presence. But I just don’t feel like they’re the fighters that people think they are, but other things justify them being in that position. I’m not a substantial fan of social media. I’m not a substantial personality outside of that.
BN: We recently saw your senior adversary Nathan Heaney lose to Brad Pauls. And Tyler Denny got the biggest win of his career against Felix Cash. Did you expect those results?
DB: Honestly, I thought Pauls would win the first fight and then draw. Then I thought, coming back, Heaney must know what he did wrong and Heaney will beat him.
It was an stimulating fight. I think when he knocked Heaney down, the fight went to Brad Pauls. I think the first three rounds were Heaney’s and I thought, yeah, he’s running away with this.
When he got knocked down, Brad Pauls started winning almost every round from that point for me, and then he stopped him at the end. Cash and Tyler Denny, I didn’t expect that. I thought Cash was going to get him, but I thought, how good is Cash? How fresh is he? He’s been out for a really long time. He’s got a novel trainer, how does that work? But just because of the level we’ve seen Cash box, I expected Cash to beat him on points. I didn’t think he’d stop him on points. So when I saw Tyler beat him, I knew he was stopped on the cut, but he still won every round for me.
BN: Do you expect another surprise for Tyler in the fight against Hamza Sheeraz?
DB: I know it sounds crazy because I’m doubting him again, but Hamzah is a different kind of fighter. Cash is talented and good, but he’s very undisciplined. He’s inactive, he’s not really disciplined. He lives a reckless life outside of boxing, and as you get older, it all catches up with you. You can’t handle all that stress. Hamzah is the opposite, especially in the ring.
I think it’s going to be tough to break through Hamzah’s defense. It’s going to be tough to break him down and get him out of his rhythm. To make him do something he’s not used to because he’s very disciplined and he listens to his coaches. If his coach says one thing, he’ll go out there and do it. Like in the Ammo Williams fight, he got caught with a huge left hook. He got rattled, he didn’t panic. He just sat in his shell, waited for the storm to pass and then started throwing his punches and catching them in between. I think it’s going to be a pretty similar fight.
MMA8 months ago
Interviews3 months ago
MMA8 months ago
Interviews3 months ago
MMA8 months ago
Boxing6 months ago
Interviews8 months ago
Opinions & Features3 months ago